CPJ urges US to press India’s Modi on media freedom during visit

The Committee to Protect Journalists says it expects the US to make India’s media crackdown “a core element of discussion.

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A prominent press watchdog says the United States government should urge Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to end what it called the crackdown on the media as it demanded the release of six journalists who “arbitrarily were detained in retaliation for their work”.

In a statement released Wednesday ahead of Modi’s state visit to the White House next week, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) said journalists critical of the Indian government and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were detained. been put, harassed and controlled.

“Since Prime Minister Modi came to power in 2014, the crackdown on the media in India has become increasingly harsh,” said CPJ president Jodie Ginsberg.

“India is the world’s largest democracy and it needs to live up to that by ensuring free and independent media — and we expect the United States to make this a core element of discussions,” she said.

CPJ demanded the release of six journalists, four of whom belong to Indian-administered Kashmir: Aasif Sultan, Sajad Gul, Fahad Shah and Irfan Mehraj. The other two are Gautam Navlakha and Rupesh Kumar Singh.

The press freedom watchdog said they are “targeted by draconian security laws,” with Shah on trial for a 2011 article published by his online magazine, The Kashmir Walla. The other five journalists remain in pre-trial detention, it said.

CPJ also denounced routine police raids and income tax investigations against domestic and foreign outlets, including the BBC, whose offices in New Delhi and Mumbai were raided after it screened a documentary critical of Modi.

Foreign correspondents say they have faced growing visa insecurity, restricted access to several parts of the country, including Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, and even threats of deportation in retaliation for critical coverage in recent years. CPJ statement.

The watchdog said 62 journalists have been killed in India in connection with their work since 1992, with the country ranking 11th on its “impunity index” last year.

India also led the world in shutting down the internet for the fifth year in 2022, which hampered press freedom and journalists’ ability to work freely, it said.

Prashant Tandon, a journalist and member of the Press Club of India, told Al Jazeera that there is tremendous pressure on journalists, especially those who are critical of the government.

“In addition to imprisoning journalists in frivolous matters and keeping them in prison, there is an undeclared censorship of any form of dissent,” Tandon said. “Democracy cannot function without a free press.”

Tandon said civil rights abuses when the state apparatus is involved can no longer remain a domestic affair.

“Global media and organizations like CPJ dedicated to protecting journalists should raise the voice of Indian journalists in every possible forum,” he said.

Al Jazeera contacted a BJP spokesman who said he has not gone through the CPJ report and therefore cannot comment on it.